SUNDAY PICTURES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24303, 18 June 1942, Page 2

SUNDAY PICTURES

START AT WEEK-END USUAL ADMISSION CHARGES TWO THEATRES TO OPEN It is announced by the Sunday Kl^ er " tainment Supervision Committee ia , next Sunday night pictures are .to be shown at the Plaza and Theatres, starting at 8.15, for men ant women in uniform, who may be accompanied by a civilian friend. Ihe usual charges for admission will be made. The chairman of the committee, 31r. G. W. Hutchison, stated yesterday that the Film Exchanges' Association ha approved of these two theatres being u*ed. The committee had been of the opinion that picture shows should be available for members of the forces without any charge for the suggestion being that the lot^°P 0 tan "Patriotic Committee should detraj the expenses and reimburse ltseix means of a collection. Question of Charging This proposal, however, had not been approved by the Film Board which had been set up by the Government in We ington. It had decided that if entertainments were to be given the usual charges must be made. . The Church representatives or trie Auckland committee, said Mr. Hutchison, had protested against, the innovation of a chargtr for-Sunday entertainment—on previous occasions , when theatres had shown pictures a collpption only had been made —and the committee had passed a resolution of protest which had been sent to the Prime Minister. Theatres in Rotation Mr. M. J. Moodabe, representative of the motion picture interests on the committee, said last night that the arrangement at present applied to next Sunday only. The programmes shown would be the same as on the preceding night. If performances were sanctioned by the Film Board for subsequent Sundays, Mr. Moodabe said, the Regent and Century Theatres would be opened on the next occasion, then the St. James' and Embassy Theatres, then the Plaza and Civic Theatres, and so on. This use of six theatres in rotation in pairs would make it unnecessary to work any staff seven days a week continuously—a practice which everyone concerned had been most anxious to avoid. The theatre employees would be paid double time for the Sunday work.